BAREKNUCKLE boxing legend Big Joe Joyce has turned his back on the game, saying: “It’s only trouble.”
The King of the Travellers — who counts world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury among his admirers — made his name in “fair-play” fights across Ireland and the UK.
Bareknuckle boxing legend Big Joe Joyce has turned his back on the gameAPX
Big Joe now believes bareknuckle boxing is ‘only trouble’
Joe counts world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury among his admirersGetty Images – Getty
Joe with son Davy JoyceAPX
And Joyce became a cult hero in recent years with his colourful outbursts on YouTube.
Big Joe boasted online about dipping his hands in petrol before fights to make them “hard as rocks” — and leaving his opponents’ faces “like a butcher’s block”.
But the 71-year-old and his pro boxer grandson Joe Ward were interviewed on The Rocky Road podcast this week — where Joyce admitted the old ways are finished in his view.
Instead of being a form of conflict resolution, Joyce believes such fights nowadays only serve to create long-running feuds.
The Co Westmeath ‘Hulk’ — who claims to have never lost a fight in his life — said: “The bareknuckle fighting is nothing only trouble. Trouble.
“Be a good boxer in the ring. You’ll earn yourself plenty of money out of it if you come good, you’re enjoying yourself. Bareknuckle fighting is only trouble.
“You could go out and fight a bareknuckle fight now, Travellers among one another, and you’re bringing every side into it.
“All other fellas challenging maybe your sons, your sons challenging some of them. It is only trouble. I don’t believe in bareknuckle fighting.
“In my time, you could go out and fight and that was it. You were only fighting one man.
“Now if you got up on a video and said ‘you’re the best man’ now everybody’s against your family and all. So I don’t believe in bareknuckle fighting no more for my family.”
Big Joe’s sons Davey and Joe Jr were distinguished amateur boxers who also took part in the country’s bareknuckle scene.
But grandson Joe Ward was kept away from these fights to focus on his flourishing boxing career. He won multiple medals in the amateur ranks before turning pro in 2019.
And in his latest victory, he knocked out American Derrick Webster at New York’s Madison Square Garden on St Patrick’s weekend to move ever closer towards a world title shot.
For his grandad, Ward’s progress — and the road paved by fellow Travellers Francie Barrett and Andy Lee — shows that organised boxing is the only way to go now.
No ring fighting available
Big Joe added: “Back in my time there was no ring fighting for the Travelling people.
“We were going around from camp to camp in old wagons, going here and there in the country, and all the little Travelling young fellas would be out fighting on the land.
“But now in the last 30 years, every Travelling man wants his young lad to go into the ring, they don’t believe in the bareknuckle fighting no more. ‘Tis only bad luck, old bareknuckle fighting. I had two sons there and each of them done it. Bareknuckle fighting, I don’t want my family doing it. My grandsons or my sons.”
Joyce’s son Joe Jr is currently serving a ten-year stretch in prison for the murder of 18-year old John Paul McDonagh in 2020, having lost his appeal last year to have the conviction overturned.
Petrol tribute
Meanwhile, Fury — who said he dipped his own paws in petrol as a tribute to Big Joe before his second bout with American Deontay Wilder in 2020 — will fight Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed heavyweight crown in May.
And Joyce believes Fury’s achievements speak volumes about the progress Travellers have made in the sport of boxing.
He added: “Tyson Fury in my eyes is the greatest heavyweight man in the world now.
“And I’m very glad to have a Travelling man be the heavyweight champ of the world. You wouldn’t see that back years ago.
“For the Travellers getting into boxing now, it’s very good, like Joe Ward there and all the young lads.”
First Traveller champion
Andy Lee was the first Traveller world champion, claiming the WBO middleweight belt ten years ago in Las Vegas.
And Big Joe’s grandson, fresh from his second-round knockout win, aims to follow in his fellow Olympian’s footsteps.
Ward, 30 — who has an 11-1 record — added: “It all went really well at Madison Square Garden.
“Derrick Webster came in with a really good record, 33 fights with 29 wins, fought for a few titles, so we were expecting a tough fight.
“But when I got in there, things just started to flow and I got him out of there nice and early, which was very impressive.”
Big Joe with Joe Ward and Kenneth Egan
Big Joe in action during a bareknuckle fight”}]]